Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference North America...

Open Source Summit + Embedded Linux Conference North America 2026

May 18-20, 2026
Minneapolis, MN
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Note: The schedule is subject to change.

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IMPORTANT NOTE: Timing of sessions and room locations are subject to change.

11:20am CDT

From Closed To Collaborative: Lessons From Qualcomm’s Open Development Experience - Rashmi Chitrakar, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Monday May 18, 2026 11:20am - 12:00pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

For more than 15 years, Qualcomm’s been actively involved in a range of Open Source ecosystems. Until recently, some parts of our development were handled behind closed doors, with contributions coming later and upstream enablement sometimes being limited. We tried various projects and partnerships to push things upstream sooner, but it wasn’t until lately that we truly made a complete shift.

Over the past 18 months, we’ve totally revisited our approach—moving an entire Linux product development ecosystem, with hundreds of contributors, from a private downstream setup to a full-blown Open Development model. This wasn’t just a surface change: it meant overhauling how our engineers work, syncing up our internal systems with open practices, and fundamentally changing the way our developers connect and collaborate.

In this session, we’ll share what made this transition work for us—including how we managed to weave our internal systems into Open Source workflows, encouraged developers to embrace new ways of thinking, and built scalable processes that can handle all sorts of Linux ecosystems and distributions.

Speakers

Rashmi Chitrakar

Sr Director, Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc

Rashmi Chitrakar is the Engineering Lead for Qualcomm’s Open Source Program Office. Her team does the balancing act of catering to Qualcomm’s Open Source Legal Group’s due-diligence needs and fostering an Engineering community that both leverages and contributes to Open Source... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 11:20am - 12:00pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

11:20am CDT

From Plaintext To Protected: Syslog Over TLS 1.3 in BusyBox for Embedded Routers - Tarun Kundu, Ericsson Software Technology, USA

Monday May 18, 2026 11:20am - 12:00pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

BusyBox is a go-to userspace stack for embedded routers, but BusyBox syslogd remote logging is often deployed without transport security—sending logs in plaintext across networks. In enterprise deployments, there exists a security and compliance gap when encrypted log transport, such as RFC 5425-style secure syslog, is expected.

This talk shares a production-driven approach: after evaluating syslog-ng/rsyslog and weighing their integration cost against embedded constraints, we added TLS 1.3 directly to BusyBox syslogd using OpenSSL APIs, reusing crypto already on the device. We’ll demo end-to-end secure logging (router → syslog server), including optional server certificate pinning to reduce MITM risk, and validate the improvement with a packet capture.

We’ll then cover embedded-specific engineering details: preserving UDP logging behavior for backwards compatibility, gating TLS behind a build-time feature flag, testing success/failure paths (handshake and pinning errors), and overnight memory monitoring of syslogd. We’ll close with upstream interest in syslog over TLS and next-step considerations.

Speakers

Tarun Kundu

Embedded Systems Engineer, Ericsson Software Technology, USA

Tarun Kundu is an Embedded Systems Engineer at Ericsson Software Technology with 21+ years of experience delivering embedded networking and cloud software. An avid learner and AI enthusiast, previously worked at Cisco, AWS, and Altran.

Monday May 18, 2026 11:20am - 12:00pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

1:30pm CDT

Debug Everything: Building a Debuginfod Backbone for Embedded Linux at Scale - Colin Pinnell McAllister & Joshua Pevehouse, Garmin

Monday May 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux debugging has always required difficult trade-offs. Flash storage constraints on target devices force teams to strip debug symbols from most binaries, leaving developers unable to debug critical applications without finding symbols elsewhere.

This presentation examines our transition from limited, on-target debug symbols to comprehensive debuggability across all binaries and build types. The key insight: while flash is expensive on embedded targets, centralized storage is cost-effective and scalable.

We adopted elfutils debuginfod to build enterprise-scale debug infrastructure integrated with our CI/CD pipeline. This has allowed us to host debug artifacts for every binary produced by continuous integration, enabling engineers to debug any component from any build, using standard tools like GDB, without manual symbol management.

This talk covers our journey towards using debuginfod, the architectural decisions we made that allowed debuginfod to scale, integration strategies with the Yocto build system, and the impact on engineering productivity. Attendees will gain practical insights for implementing similar solutions in their organizations.

Speakers

Joshua Pevehouse

Garmin

Colin McAllister

Senior Software Engineer, Garmin

Colin McAllister is a software engineer at Garmin, where he focuses on advancing the security, core infrastructure, and development tooling that power Garmin Marine’s diverse range of Embedded Linux products. His passion for embedded Linux began in 2017 while working on a telematics... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

1:30pm CDT

Do You Need GCC To Build Embedded Linux ? - Khem Raj, Comcast

Monday May 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

GCC is default toolchain for Linux based systems, ever since the Linux Distributions were being put together from early days of Linux. However, there have been important developements in compiler technologies and LLVM project has come along. The LLVM infrastructure has been used to build various different compilers for different languages, Clang is the C/C++ static compiler and rust also uses LLVM. There is LLD ( LLVM Linker ) LLDB, ( LLVM Debugger ). binutils like objcopy, objdump, strip etc. are also added. C/C++ compiler runtime in compiler-rt/libc++ has matured as well. The compiler has been used to build Linux Kernel already, However, it can be used to build full Embedded Linux Systems using infrastructure like Yocto project. This talk will showcase that a Linux system can be built completely using LLVM toolchain, replacing the compiler, compiler-runtime, binutils with LLVM built tools. In addition it will also discuss the modern tooling provided with LLVM and Clang and static analyser ( clang-scan ), clang-tidy, clanf-format etc. show-casing additional tooling that can be used by developers e.g. sanitizers.

Speakers

Khem Raj

Fellow, Comcast

Khem Raj is a yocto project maintainer and long time OpenSource contributor to many projects e.g. LLVM, Glibc, Musl, OpenEmbedded etc., he has been helping several open source initiatives in industry. He is guiding the company's adoption of open source software, and becoming an active... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 1:30pm - 2:10pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

2:25pm CDT

Building Virtual Drivers With RPMsg: Key Design Principles, Challenges & Trade-offs - Beleswar Prasad Padhi, Texas Instruments

Monday May 18, 2026 2:25pm - 3:05pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

Modern heterogeneous SoCs often integrate multiple remote processors (rprocs) that control peripherals for safety purposes, alongside a general-purpose processor running a HLOS like Linux. In automotive systems, these peripherals still need to be shared with Linux for complex use cases like Ethernet traffic sharing, coordinating multiple display pipelines. The Remote Processor Messaging (RPMsg) framework in Linux enables this model by providing an efficient IPC mechanism, allowing devices owned by rprocs to be exposed to Linux as standard devices through virtual kernel drivers built on top of RPMsg. With the growing adoption of this approach, interfaces like rpmsg-gpio, rpmsg-i2c, rpmsg-net are becoming increasingly common.

Using the upstreamed rpmsg-tty driver as an example, this talk presents:
1. The key design principles for building virtual drivers with RPMsg, covering topics like channel & endpoint management(static vs dynamic), synchronization.
2. A comparative study of RPMsg-based solutions with its VirtIO alternative, highlighting trade-offs in latency, resources and use case suitability.
3. Challenges, upstreaming lessons, common pitfalls and scope for future improvement.

Speakers

Beleswar Prasad Padhi

Senior Software Engineer at Texas Instruments, Texas Instruments

Beleswar is a Senior Software Engineer at Texas Instruments, actively working on Upstream Linux Kernel and U-Boot. His work mainly focuses on Remoteproc, RPMsg, Mailbox, Virtio subsystems, as well as boot-time optimizations. He was listed among the top contributors for Linux 6.18... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 2:25pm - 3:05pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

2:25pm CDT

Lessons Learned in Embedded Linux Streaming - Tokunbo Quaye, Intelligent Product Solutions

Monday May 18, 2026 2:25pm - 3:05pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

In this session, I’ll share practical lessons learned while architecting, building, and supporting a production media system running on custom hardware using open source systems :

Yocto for a customized OS;
GStreamer for media pipelines;
PulseAudio for audio routing;
BlueZ for Bluetooth integration;

This session is relevant because while projects like Yocto, GStreamer, PulseAudio, and BlueZ are powerful individually, integrating them into a production-ready system on custom hardware exposes complexities rarely covered in documentation. Sharing hard-earned lessons helps the ecosystem build more reliable open systems.

Main Points:
- System Overview : Hardware Constraints
- Yocto Custom OS Tradeoffs : Layer Strategy, Packet Selections, Reproducible Builds, Field Updates and Support
- Gstreamer : Pipeline design patterns, Handling dynamic audio devices
- PulseAudio & Bluez Integration
- Field Support and Long Term Maintenance : Logging Strategy; Remote Diagnostics, Managing Updates

Attendees will walk away with concrete integration patterns, design considerations for long-term maintainability, and insights that help when building real-world media systems on embedded Linux.

Speakers

Tokunbo Quaye

Principal Software Engineer, Intelligent Product Solutions

I am a seasoned Software Architect and Engineer with over 20 years of experience in all phases of software development and team technical leadership. My passion lies in designing and delivering high performance, robust, maintainable and scalable software applications that drive business... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 2:25pm - 3:05pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

3:35pm CDT

Engineering Quality in a Fast-Moving Open Source Project: WPE WebKit - Mario Sanchez-Prada, Igalia

Monday May 18, 2026 3:35pm - 4:15pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Building an embedded product on top of a large Open Source codebase like WPE WebKit is only the first step. The real challenge is keeping its quality stable as thousands of lines evolve and hundreds of changes land every week across multiple platforms.

In such an environment, errors and regressions are inevitable. What matters is detecting them quickly, understanding their impact, and reacting before they propagate further. This talk focuses on the engineering work that makes this possible, an effort that is essential yet often invisible.

Using WPE WebKit as a case study, we will explore how quality becomes a continuous engineering effort rather than a final validation phase and how CI and QA infrastructure, testing strategies, and processes (e.g. stabilization windows) sustain upstream development while supporting downstream deployments. We will show how these feedback loops reinforce each other and why aligning upstream and downstream processes is critical to keep quality stable over time.

This talk targets engineers, maintainers, and technical leaders working on large Open Source projects, as well as teams building products on top of them who need to sustain quality at scale.

Speakers

Mario Sanchez-Prada

Software Engineer and WebKit Team coordinator at Igalia, Igalia

Software engineer and partner at Igalia with 18+ years of experience working on the development of Linux-based Operating Systems, the GNOME platform, Web engines (i.e. WebKit, Blink) and Web browsers (Epiphany, Chromium).

Past experience includes work on the Maemo project, Litl... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 3:35pm - 4:15pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

3:35pm CDT

Status of Linux Boot-time Work - Tim Bird, Sony Electronics

Monday May 18, 2026 3:35pm - 4:15pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

In this talk, Tim will describe the status of work to reduce boot-time for Linux systems. This include work by the Boot-Time Special Interest Group (SIG), as well as others in the Linux ecosystem. We will cover patches that have gone upstream to the Linux kernel and to systemd in the past year, their potential boot-time savings, and how to use them in your own projects. Patches in progress will also be discussed. Tim will summarize recent boot-time talks from other events (particularly Linux Plumbers Conference), highlighting some of the techniques that were described. Finally, Tim will present his own work to build a boot-time wizard program, to help developers find boot-time bottlenecks and areas where boot speed can be improved.

Speakers

Tim Bird

Principal Software Engineer, Sony Electronics

Tim Bird is a Principal Software Engineer for Sony Corporation, where he helps Sony use Linux and other open source software in their products. Tim is the organizer of the Linux Boot-Time Special Interest Group, a contributor to the Linux kernel, and is involved with numerous Linux... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 3:35pm - 4:15pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

4:30pm CDT

Bootph: A Swiss Army Knife for Boot-Time Optimization - Gokul Praveen & Beleswar Prasad Padhi, Texas Instruments

Monday May 18, 2026 4:30pm - 5:10pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

With more stringent regulations for automotive usecases, every millisecond of boot time is critical. Safety features like rear-view camera and surround view must start working quickly to meet regulations. A typical solution is to have custom boot loaders as they are often faster than U-Boot and the memory footprint of U-Boot has been increasing as device trees grow larger. However, U-Boot provides significant advantages: rich driver model, broad hardware and strong community support.

This raises an important question: how can U-Boot be made a more attractive alternative to custom RTOS bootloaders w.r.t boot time and memory footprint? The answer lies in "bootph" (boot phase) tags, which enable selective node tagging to solve the above-mentioned problems.

This session aims to cover the following:
1. Overview of U-Boot boot phases(SPL, VPL, TPL & U-Boot proper).
2. Deep dive into bootph tags: usage, meaning, and how they affect each boot phase.
3. Common pitfalls: accidentally removing SPL-required nodes, over-tagging shared peripherals, and overusing bootph-all tag.
4. A live case study demonstrating how U-Boot matched the boot time of a custom RTOS bootloader on the TI J7200 SoC.

Speakers

Beleswar Prasad Padhi

Senior Software Engineer at Texas Instruments, Texas Instruments

Beleswar is a Senior Software Engineer at Texas Instruments, actively working on Upstream Linux Kernel and U-Boot. His work mainly focuses on Remoteproc, RPMsg, Mailbox, Virtio subsystems, as well as boot-time optimizations. He was listed among the top contributors for Linux 6.18... Read More →

Gokul Praveen

Embedded Software Applications Engineer, Texas Instruments, India

I am a Software Applications Engineer with 2 years of experience at Texas Instruments(TI). My work mainly focuses on boot time optimizations, board bring ups with Linux, U-Boot, and handling platform-specific drivers, including those for eMMC, SD, UART, USB, and Timer peripherals... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 4:30pm - 5:10pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

4:30pm CDT

Complying With Regulatory SBoM Requirements Using the Yocto Project - Joshua Watt, Garmin

Monday May 18, 2026 4:30pm - 5:10pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

With regulatory deadlines regarding Software Bill of Materials (SBoMs) in place, and more on the horizon (such as the CRA), it is important to ensure that you can comply with the requirements that are stipulated. Fortunately, Yocto has a robust and comprehensive SBoM generation integrated into it, which can aid in ensuring compliance. In this talk, Joshua will provide information and tips about how to configure your Yocto builds for compliance with several of the different SBoM standards.

Speakers

Joshua Watt

Staff Software Engineer, Garmin

Joshua is a Staff Software Engineer for Garmin with 18 years experience producing consumer electronics. He has worked on the Yocto SPDX SBoM implementation, and is a member of the Yocto Project TSC as well as the OpenEmbedded TSC.

Monday May 18, 2026 4:30pm - 5:10pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

5:25pm CDT

Leveraging U-Boot Binman With Hardware Security Modules (HSM) for Secure Boot - Riya Aysola & Judith Mendez, Texas Instruments

Monday May 18, 2026 5:25pm - 6:05pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

Secure boot is becoming essential for more embedded Linux systems, yet secure firmware signing at scale remains challenging. Traditional approaches often rely on manual, locally managed scripts and cryptographic keys, leading to increased security risks from development to production environments. This presentation demonstrates a practical approach to secure boot image creation using U-Boot's Binman tool integrated with Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) for cryptographic signing. We examine how Binman assembles multi-stage boot images and delegates signing to HSMs, protecting private keys while enabling automated builds. We will also explore how Binman's signing workflow can be adapted to support various HSM deployment models. Attendees will understand how image signing with Binman establishes a secure boot chain of trust, why HSM-backed signing is critical for production systems, and how open-source tools can be combined with security best practices to create more robust and scalable firmware signing workflows. The goal is to help the broader open-source ecosystem adopt more standardized and secure practices for firmware image creation and signing suitable for production deployment

Speakers

Riya Aysola

Systems Engineer, Texas Instruments

Riya Aysola is a Systems Engineer in Texas Instruments' Embedded Processing group, focused on embedded security and cybersecurity. She holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Houston.

Judith Mendez

Embedded Linux Developer, Texas Instruments

Judith Mendez is an embedded Linux developer at Texas Instruments with nearly 4 years of experience on Sitara K3 SoCs and legacy AM335/AM437 platforms. She handles driver development and maintenance for IPs like MMC, PWM, M_CAN, and watchdog, helping deliver quality Linux SDKs and... Read More →

Monday May 18, 2026 5:25pm - 6:05pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Beginner

5:25pm CDT

Verification Toward Applying SLSA in Automotive IVI Software Development - Yuta Kiyoumi & Takashi Ninjouji, Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Monday May 18, 2026 5:25pm - 6:05pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

In automotive software development—such as IVI (In-Vehicle Infotainment) software—many layers of the supply chain are involved, including automotive OEMs and Tier‑1 suppliers. Automotive OEMs, in particular, are required to manage a complex and multi‑layered software supply chain under strict safety and regulatory constraints.

To evaluate supply chain security efforts within software development, we have been conducting a feasibility study on applying SLSA, a supply chain security framework being developed by the OpenSSF.

In this session, we will share insights gained through our validation of SLSA adoption and discuss approaches to supply chain security in large-scale software development projects such as AAOS.

Speakers

Yuta KIYOUMI

staff, HONDA MOTOR CO.,LTD.

Yuta Kiyoumi is the Security Architect for IVI software development at Honda Motor Co., Ltd. He also serves as a member of the Honda OSPO promoting secure OSS adoption, and participates as a member of the OpenSSF.

Takashi Ninjouji

Chief Engineer, Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Takashi Ninjouji is a Chief Engineer at Honda Motor Co., Ltd., with a focus on Software-Defined Vehicles (SDV). He is a manager of the Open Source Program Office (OSPO). His interests also include AI-assisted engineering automation.

Monday May 18, 2026 5:25pm - 6:05pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Beginner

11:00am CDT

From PLC–SCADA To Digital Twins: Architecting Real-Time Industrial Systems for Scale and Resilience - Avadh Nagaralawala, Independent Consultant

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:00am - 11:40am CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Industrial control systems built on PLC and SCADA architectures power critical infrastructure worldwide, yet most remain siloed, reactive, and difficult to scale for modern operational demands. As industries adopt digital twins for prediction, optimization, and resilience, a key challenge emerges: how to integrate real-time control systems with digital twin architectures without compromising safety, determinism, or reliability.

This session presents a practical, architecture-driven approach to integrating PLC–SCADA systems with digital twins in large-scale industrial environments. Drawing from real-world automation modernization programs, the talk explores data synchronization patterns, control boundaries, latency considerations, and open-source tooling strategies that enable production-grade digital twins rather than visualization-only pilots.

Attendees will gain a systems-level understanding of how embedded Linux platforms, open communication protocols, and control system design principles can support scalable digital twins for industrial operations. The session emphasizes architecture, interoperability, and lifecycle design, not vendor-specific solutions.

Speakers

Avadh Nagaralawala

Independent Consultant

Avadh Nagaralawala is a Mining Automation & Control Engineering Consultant with over 12+ years of experience driving innovation in mining, electrification, and digital transformation. Avadh is an active member of professional associations including IEEE, SME, CIM, and PMI, and frequently... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:00am - 11:40am CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

11:00am CDT

State of Embedded Linux - Walt Miner, The Linux Foundation

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:00am - 11:40am CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

This talk offers a comprehensive look at what's changed in the embedded Linux world over the past year. Walt will walk through the latest kernel developments most relevant to embedded developers, survey key userspace projects shaping modern embedded designs, and cover the broader community, industry, and legal landscape — from the status of major processor architectures to initiatives at the Linux Foundation and beyond.

Whether you're tracking changes to subsystems you already rely on or looking for new tools and techniques to improve your workflow, this session will help you stay current in a fast-moving ecosystem. Come find out what's new, what's shifting, and what it means for your embedded Linux work.

Speakers

Walt Miner

AGL Community Manager, The Linux Foundation

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:00am - 11:40am CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

11:55am CDT

Easy Bring-up Your RISC-V SBC Using Yocto Project - RISC-V Architecture Layer - Khem Raj, Comcast

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:55am - 12:35pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

There are several different RISC-V based single board computers out in market and coming in future. Yocto project, is a leading embedded linux framework, and RISCV is first tier architecture supported in project, core supports RISCV64 QEMU and runs all tests. This talk will discuss using meta-riscv layers to add the support for new RISCV SBCs. meta-riscv has best practices and pre-existing support for known SBCs which can be used as template to bring-up the new board quickly. The talk will cover the content of meta-riscv in detail and the project setups using Kas and the SBC specific documentation using markdown files, detailing the flashing and build instructions, sharing common details but clearly differentiating board specific intructions.
This talk will also cover the challanges and future roadmap for meta-riscv and RISCV architecture support in Yocto Project.

Speakers

Khem Raj

Fellow, Comcast

Khem Raj is a yocto project maintainer and long time OpenSource contributor to many projects e.g. LLVM, Glibc, Musl, OpenEmbedded etc., he has been helping several open source initiatives in industry. He is guiding the company's adoption of open source software, and becoming an active... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:55am - 12:35pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

11:55am CDT

From Physics To EBPF: Quantifying Flash Wear in Embedded Systems - Blake Hildebrand, Nordic Semiconductor

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:55am - 12:35pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Flash memory is the literal foundation of an embedded system, yet it is a finite resource. Every log entry, database commit, and firmware update inches the device closer to its end of life. For developers managing fleets of devices, the question is not just if the flash will fail, but when and which process is the culprit.

This session dives deep into the lifecycle of a write, from a high level look at the physics behind flash memory, to how we can get an estimation of lifetime by tracking number of bytes written. We will start at the hardware level, explaining the physical degradation of NAND cells and why eMMC controllers use wear leveling to manage this reality. Next, we will bridge the gap between hardware specs and software reality using the Total Bytes Written (TBW) metric to estimate remaining life.

Moving into the Linux kernel, we will explore the built-in metrics found in procfs and sysfs to monitor disk I/O. Finally, we will level up our observability by using eBPF to build a per process "write shaming" tool. This allows us to pinpoint exactly which application or daemon is burning through our hardware lifespan.

Speakers

Blake Hildebrand

Software Engineer, Nordic Semiconductor

Blake has been using Linux since installing Ubuntu Breezy on his dad’s old office PC. Since then, he’s worked on everything from smartwatches to large-scale web services. As an Software Engineer at Memfault, he focuses on improving device reliability and performance. Previously... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 11:55am - 12:35pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

2:10pm CDT

From Malloc To Box: A Practical Guide To Rustification - Christina Quast, Independent

Tuesday May 19, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Moving from the manual memory management of C to the strict ownership model of Rust is more than a syntax swap; it is a fundamental shift in engineering philosophy. This talk provides a pragmatic roadmap for developers navigating this transition. We move beyond the academic "why" of memory safety to dive deep into the "how" of refactoring legacy systems.

The session explores the practicalities of Rustification, comparing the pitfalls of malloc and free—such as use-after-free and double-free vulnerabilities—with the compile-time guarantees provided by Rust’s Box, Arc, and Borrow Checker. Furthermore, we tackle the topics of how to translate manual pointer arithmetic into safe abstractions, practical strategies for using the Foreign Function Interface (FFI) to let Rust and C coexist during a gradual migration as well as a real-world example of "Rustifying" a C module, from initial profiling to stable deployment.

Speakers

Christina Quast

Embedded Systems Engineer, $NONE

After finishing her master's degree in Electrical Engineering at TU Berlin, Christina is currently working as an Embedded Systems Engineer at for various companies. In her spare time, she submits patches to the Linux Kernel or learns new programming languages.

Tuesday May 19, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

2:10pm CDT

Practical Insights Into Interactive Debugging of Linux MMC Block Device Drivers - Akhilesh Patil, Amazon

Tuesday May 19, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

Transitioning from bare-metal firmware development to Linux kernel development presents unique challenges, particularly in debugging methodologies. Traditional approaches such as halting execution via JTAG alone may not straightforwardly work for embedded Linux.

In this presentation we talk about challenges I faced and techniques I came across to debug Linux MMC block device drivers interactively using tools such as T32/GDB debuggers on embedded systems. This talk briefly covers MMC driver and block layer interactions and key golden breakpoints to use for MMC bus driver debugging. I will also discuss tools and techniques to take full control of eMMC block drivers, generating block IO requests as needed, setting up triggers and probing signals on an oscilloscope for detailed waveform level debugging.

key topics: Embedded Linux setup for interactive debug (single CPU, KASLR, WDT, ramfs, RCU, softlocks), strategic SDHCI breakpoints, GPIO-triggered oscilloscope capture signals, handling filesystem mounts; leveraging mmc_test module for generating controlled transactions for debug.

Speakers

AKHILESH PATIL

Embedded Software Developer, Amazon

Akhilesh is an embedded software engineer at Amazon working with the devices Linux kernel team. He is working on various BSP packages including linux drivers, runtime firmware and bootloaders. He has a background of Electrical and Electronics Engineering and is passionate about embedded... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

3:05pm CDT

Microseconds Matter : Benchmarking Thread Synchronization - Gautham Ponnu, The MathWorks

Tuesday May 19, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

This talk aims to analyze the performance of most common Linux synchronization primitives under PREEMPT_RT, comparing their behavior across a range of workloads. We’ll explore how each primitive scales with thread count, handles contention, and impacts determinism. Expect graphs, latency histograms, and a few surprises. If you’re building real-time systems or tuning performance, this session will help you make smarter, faster, and safer decisions.

Speakers

Gautham Ponnu

Principal Software Engineer & Manager of Engineering, The MathWorks

Gautham Ponnu is a Principal Software Engineer for Real-Time Systems at MathWorks, where he leads development of real-time simulation and hardware-in-the-loop testing tools. With over a decade of experience in embedded and real-time systems, Gautham specializes in real-time synchronization... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

3:05pm CDT

Secure Boot for Embedded Linux: Explained in Simple Words - Roy Jamil, Ac6

Tuesday May 19, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Secure Boot is often described using cryptography-heavy terminology, vendor-specific flows, and complex diagrams that make it intimidating for embedded developers.
This talk explains Secure Boot for embedded Linux systems from first principles, using simple language and clear mental models.

We start by answering why Secure Boot exists, then walk step by step through the boot process. Concepts like Root of Trust and signature verification are explained without assuming prior security or cryptography background.

The session focuses on what actually happens at boot time, not on vendor marketing or abstract theory. Real-world examples from common embedded Linux systems are used to illustrate how Secure Boot is implemented and where it can fail if misunderstood.

By the end of the talk, attendees will be able to explain Secure Boot in their own words, understand its guarantees and limitations, and reason about Secure Boot designs in real embedded products.

Speakers

Roy Jamil

Embedded Systems Trainer, Ac6

Roy Jamil, with a PhD in the field of Asymmetric Multiprocessing (AMP) and real-time embedded systems, has over six years of experience as a Training Engineer at Ac6. He trains hundreds of engineers annually. His experience includes programming, Linux, drivers, Yocto, and various... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Beginner

4:20pm CDT

Optimize Linux Kernel To Fit Microcontrollers With 1 MB RAM - Jim Huang & Chisheng Chen, National Cheng Kung University

Tuesday May 19, 2026 4:20pm - 5:00pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Running the Linux kernel on microcontrollers with severely constrained RAM has long been viewed as impractical. Conventional embedded Linux builds still assume tens of megabytes of memory, excluding a wide class of resource-limited hardware such as Arm Cortex-M and certain Cortex-R devices. This talk presents recent work on adapting and optimizing the Linux kernel to operate within a 1 MB RAM budget.

We examine the challenges of reducing Linux’s memory footprint for microcontroller-class systems and the techniques that enable Linux to run in sub-megabyte environments. Topics include:
* Memory profiling of core kernel subsystems
* Removing or deferring optional features to reduce RAM usage
* Streamlining kernel image layout and data structures
* Adjusting build configurations and boot flow for extreme constraints
* Runtime trade-offs between functionality and footprint

The session demonstrates how mainline Linux can be reshaped to fit far smaller footprints than traditionally assumed. This approach expands the reach of embedded Linux and provides practical strategies for optimizing memory usage on highly constrained platforms.

Speakers

Jim Huang

Assistant Professor, National Cheng Kung University

Drawing from his contributions to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), Jim specializes in real-time performance tuning and optimization of Linux-based automations. Additionally, he is a co-founder of the LXDE project, a lightweight desktop environment widely utilized in embedded... Read More →

Chisheng Chen

Student, National Cheng Kung University

Chisheng Chen, a.k.a rota1001, is an embedded system developer transitioned from a CTF player. These days, he wrote firmwares on some microcontrollers and did some DOOM and Linux ports. He is currently pursuing the B.S. degree in Computer Science in National Cheng Kung University... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 4:20pm - 5:00pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

4:20pm CDT

Why Demand Is Growing for Linux as a Real Time OS in Embedded IEC 61508/ISO 26262-compliant Systems - Dylan Dawson, Elektrobit

Tuesday May 19, 2026 4:20pm - 5:00pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

As automotive E/E architectures evolve toward centralized high-performance computing (HPC) real-time operating systems (RTOS) need better visibility into system timing behavior. Additionally software defined vehicle (SDV) trends where open, flexible, non-proprietary software stacks are the goal. In this landscape, legacy concepts like dedicated microcontrollers in-service to HPC safety are being challenged. ADAS workloads are balancing HPC compute power with strict time constraint requirements in real-time behavior. Combining mixed-critical workloads on a single HPC platform is a viable solution for OEMs and Tier 1s building perception, control, and safety-relevant HPC domain controller functions. However, the struggle to ensure real-time performance and deterministic timing is an ongoing challenge.
This presentation will demonstrate how Linux can provide measurable, stable, and predictable real-time performance, enabling ADAS teams to run time-critical functions on a modern automotive-grade Linux stack. The audience will gain confidence in a concept which accelerates development for SDV without proprietary RTOS islands, and charters a path to ASIL B/SIL 3 certification

Speakers

Dylan Dawson

Director of Cross-portfolio Growth & Strategic Alliances - North America, Elektrobit

Dylan Dawson is a North American Director at Elektrobit. His focus is strategic partnerships and product evangelism across in automotive. His experience spans securing design wins with OEMs, expanding market reach for emerging software products, and building strategic alliances across... Read More →

Tuesday May 19, 2026 4:20pm - 5:00pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

11:00am CDT

How AGL SoDeV Accelerates the Future of Mobility Through Open-Source Collaboration - Yuichi Kusakabe, Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:00am - 11:40am CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) is advancing Software Defined Vehicle (SoDeV) as a foundation for open, scalable, and collaborative automotive innovation. As vehicles become increasingly software-centric, accelerating collaboration between AGL SoDeV initiatives and the broader open-source automotive community is critical to shaping the future of mobility.
This session highlights how AGL SoDeV acts as a collaboration hub that connects industry-driven development with open-source community contributions. Building on a previously presented demo, we introduce updated workflows and tooling that reduce collaboration friction, improve governance transparency, and enable faster feedback loops between SoDeV activities and OSS communities.
Through an updated live demonstration, we show how governance automation and clear contribution flows can function as enablers rather than barriers. The talk focuses on practical lessons learned from evolving AGL SoDeV collaboration models, explaining what has changed, why it matters, and how these improvements help communities and organizations innovate together more effectively.

Speakers

Yuichi Kusakabe

Chief Architect, Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Yuichi Kusakabe is the Chief Architect at Honda Motor Co., Ltd. , AGL(Automotive Grade Linux) member and COVESA(Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance) member since 2011 with over twenty years of Automotive and Open Source Software Experience.
Prior to joining Honda Motor he worked... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:00am - 11:40am CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

11:20am CDT

Lightning Talk: Offline Open Knowledge: Running a Wikipedia Powered Game on Embedded Linux - Azmath Syeda, Independent

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:20am - 11:35am CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

This lightning talk walks through building a Wordle-style guessing game powered entirely by a local Wikipedia dump running on a Raspberry Pi. No cloud, no proprietary APIs, no internet required during gameplay.
We'll cover the practical technical journey: downloading and parsing Wikimedia dumps, extracting structured metadata into SQLite, building a lightweight Node.js server on ARM Linux, and running the game full-screen via Chromium in kiosk mode on a Pi connected to an HDMI display.
The result is a fully self-contained open knowledge game console. Live demo on actual hardware included.
Key takeaways: working with Wikimedia open data dumps, SQLite on constrained ARM hardware, Node.js performance on edge Linux, and Chromium kiosk mode as a game display layer.

Speakers

Azmath Syeda

Senior Member of Technical Staff, Oracle

Creative technologist and firmware engineer building open source educational games at the intersection of Wikipedia, open data, and interactive experiences. Creator of Wiki Trendle, WikiLength, and others at Factorday. Currently a Senior Engineer at Oracle.

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:20am - 11:35am CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Beginner

11:55am CDT

Lightning Talk: Untangling Secure Key Provisioning in U-Boot: Scalable EFuse Programming in Production - Harsha Vardhan Veerappan Murugesan & Kavitha Malarvizhi, Texas Instruments

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:55am - 12:10pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Note: Open to presenting as Lightning Talk

Secure provisioning is a foundational step in productizing embedded Linux systems, especially when enabling secure boot and establishing silicon identity through eFuses or one-time programmable (OTP) memory. Yet many teams still rely on manual fuse programming flows that are error-prone and difficult to scale particularly when dealing with complex, vendor-specific fuse maps. This talk explores how modern U-Boot capabilities streamline secure device provisioning in real manufacturing workflows. It introduces an upstream enhancement to U-Boot’s fuse subsystem that supports bulk, structured eFuse programming. This approach makes fuse provisioning more automation-friendly, and suitable for production use. Attendees will gain practical insights on integrating U-Boot-based provisioning into factory flows.
Agenda:
1. Challenges in Traditional eFuse Programming on Embedded Systems
2. U-Boot’s Existing Fuse Subsystem and Its Limitations in Production Flows
3. Design and Upstream Integration of the 'fuse writebuff' command
4. Structured, Automated Provisioning using Memory Buffers
5. Practical Provisioning and Production Workflow Considerations

Speakers

Harsha Vardhan Veerappan Murugesan

Embedded Software Engineer, Texas Instruments India

Harsha Vardhan is a security-focused embedded software engineer at Texas Instruments, working on secure boot enablement and secure key provisioning for production platforms. He is an upstream contributor to U-Boot and authored the buffer-based eFuse programming enhancement in U-boot... Read More →

Kavitha Malarvizhi

Software Engineering Manager and Security Architect, Texas Instruments

With over 17 years of experience in embedded systems and firmware development, Kavitha specialize in designing and securing boot ROMs and firmware for microcontrollers and processors. Currently, she serves as a Software Engineering Manager for Security firmware at Texas Instruments... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:55am - 12:10pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

11:55am CDT

It Works on My Bench (And Nowhere Else): DevOps for Embedded Systems - Colleen Lake, GitLab

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:55am - 12:35pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded software complexity has doubled every four years for decades. The way most teams build and deploy it is still stuck in the 2010s. Version control exists, but it's still not unusual for code to be shipped from a sharpie-labeled SD card or prod code to live on one machine. Deployment still means walking over to a test bench and hoping nobody else is using it. "It works on my machine" is often an entire strategy.

This talk brings modern DevOps to embedded systems. We'll cover version control workflows that actually work for firmware, build environments that don't depend on that one engineer's laptop, CI/CD pipelines that integrate with real hardware, and deployment strategies that reduce the risk of bricking devices in the field. We'll also touch on what to steal from web DevOps and what doesn't translate when your deployment target isn't a cloud server.

We'll demo the whole flow: commit, build, deploy to hardware. You'll leave with practical patterns you can bring back to your own embedded projects. Some embedded experience is useful, but if you've ever been frustrated by how your team ships firmware, you'll get something out of this.

Speakers

Colleen Lake

Developer Advocate, GitLab

Colleen Lake is a Developer Advocate at Gitlab and her team's resident hardware geek. She’s worked with NASA and was featured on Gimlet Media’s Startup podcast. When she’s not playing with robots or coding you can usually find her lost in the woods or on the internet (@colleencode... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 11:55am - 12:35pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Beginner

2:10pm CDT

Construct a Lean and Fast RISC-V System Emulator Capable of Running Linux - Jim Huang, National Cheng Kung University

Wednesday May 20, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

While mature solutions such as QEMU provide broad architectural coverage, they are optimized for generality rather than minimal footprint, rapid bring-up, or architectural experimentation. To examine system-level design trade-offs, gain fine-grained control over memory and execution behavior, and enable lightweight Linux-based sandboxing and verification, we built a RISC-V system emulator from scratch.

rv32emu [1] supports RV32IMACF with Zifencei and Zicsr, along with CLINT, MMIO, and a complete Sv32 three-level page table. Through VirtIO integration, it efficiently maps Linux guest services to host resources. A tiered JIT compilation framework accelerates Linux workloads while reducing memory consumption compared to QEMU.

This talk presents the architectural decisions behind building a compact yet Linux-capable RISC-V system emulator, highlighting trade-offs in ISA support, memory management, JIT design, and device virtualization, and sharing practical techniques with a lean footprint without sacrificing performance or correctness.

[1] https://github.com/sysprog21/rv32emu

Speakers

Jim Huang

Assistant Professor, National Cheng Kung University

Drawing from his contributions to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), Jim specializes in real-time performance tuning and optimization of Linux-based automations. Additionally, he is a co-founder of the LXDE project, a lightweight desktop environment widely utilized in embedded... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

2:10pm CDT

Using Embedded Linux for Autonomous Robot Control - Chloe Zhu, The Admissions Authority

Wednesday May 20, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

The NAO robotics platform has been around for some time, originally developed by Aldebaran and SoftBank, and now by Maxtronics. Its OpenNAO operating system is based on the Gentoo embedded Linux OS, and uses the NAOqi API for autonomous robot control. We also used the OpenCV computer vision library as part of our open source software stack to program our NAO humanoid robot.

In this talk, I will present our work to engineer an autonomous behavior system that fuses real-time vision detection with motion planning and closed-loop control. We implemented a perception-to-action pipeline using NAOqi, OpenCV, and camera and motion calibration to detect targets, estimate relative pose, and drive head movement, walking, and task actions through a finite-state controller. We designed the system for robust target search, alignment, and approach under real hardware constraints. I will present a summary of our work, our results from participation in a robot golf tournament, and some thoughts on using open source to develop next-generation robotics platforms.

Speakers

Chloe Zhu

Chief Technology Officer, The Admissions Authority

Hi everyone! My name is Chloé (Fangjun) Zhu. Currently, I am working on developing AI algorithms for unmanned aerial vehicle/drones, and for educational consultancy. I am also working on automation for industrial process control.

Prior to these, I worked as an Electrical Engine... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 2:10pm - 2:50pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Any

3:05pm CDT

Building the Simplest Possible Linux System - Rob Landley, Hobbyist

Wednesday May 20, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT

208C+D (Level Two)

Once you've done enough of them, putting together a simple Linux system is easy. The hard part is working out what "simple" means in each new context.

We'll start by building and booting an example minimal Linux system to a shell prompt, first under QEMU and again on real hardware. Then we'll explain the theory: build environment (dependency management, reproducibility), native vs cross compiling (toolchain selection, libc selection, static vs dynamic), board bringup theory, kernel configuration, initramfs creation (and other root filesystem options), installing and booting, the init process and system bringup, hardware resource management and I/O categories, and running "your app" on its own dedicated device.

If there's time we'll go into software dependencies AGAIN (on target this time), add an example server (sshd), add a native toolchain to compile "hello world" on the target (build vs development environment), and some perspective on the online book "Linux From Scratch" for further reading (plus "what is a container".

Speakers

Rob Landley

Hobbyist, Hobbyist

I've been working on Linux since 1998. I maintain toybox and mkroot. I used to maintain busybox, and was linux-kernel Documentation maintainer for a few months forever ago. I converted initramfs to use tmpfs after repeatedly failing to convince somebody else to do it, and wrote the... Read More →

Wednesday May 20, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT
208C+D (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

3:05pm CDT

When 10,000 Screens Go Dark: Engineering Resilient Linux Drivers for Manufacturing Reality - Ram Mohan Rao Chukka, JFrog & Subhajit Ghosh, Tweaklogic

Wednesday May 20, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

Ten thousand LCD panels passed Incoming Quality Control. Firmware injection began. Production stopped.
During the development of our next-generation Automated Fare Collection (AFC) machines, we qualified multiple LCD vendors, designed a custom MIPI DSI touchscreen panel, developed display and peripheral drivers, and prepared for mass production. Everything worked—until firmware flashing began. Devices that previously functioned flawlessly suddenly booted to dead displays. The same firmware image now failed across the line.
The root cause wasn’t firmware. It wasn’t hardware failure. It was a silent vendor-side change: the LCD panel driver IC had been swapped for a different silicon revision—without changing the panel model.
The Linux DRM panel framework assumes static hardware described in the Device Tree. Manufacturing does not. MIPI DSI panel drivers are based on LCD model types not Display IC model types.
This talk presents a real-world production failure and the redesign that followed: replacing static panel definitions with runtime detection of display controller ICs via MIPI DCS, dynamic initialization sequencing, and a more resilient driver architecture.

Speakers

Ram Mohan Rao Chukka

Senior Software Engineer, JFrog

Ram is a Senior Software Engineer at JFrog R&D . Previously worked for startup companies like CallidusCloud (SAP Company), Konylabs. Loves Automation, Linux, openSource

Subhajit Ghosh

CTO, Tweaklogic

Embedded Linux professional and electronics hobbyist with experience in Linux driver development, kernel programming, system software and Edge AI.
Linux kernel contributor in device driver space.
Enjoy working with hardware and technology space.

Wednesday May 20, 2026 3:05pm - 3:45pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference

Audience Experience Level Intermediate

4:20pm CDT

ELC Closing Game

Wednesday May 20, 2026 4:20pm - 5:00pm CDT

208A+B (Level Two)

Wednesday May 20, 2026 4:20pm - 5:00pm CDT
208A+B (Level Two)

Embedded Linux Conference